Posts Tagged ‘pakistan’

IT’S no secret that rights abuses are rife in Pakistan. How serious a problem this is, though, and how deep its roots permeate into the fabric of society, becomes apparent only when different sorts of abuses are considered separately. We know, for example, that women are forced by circumstances or by criminal gangs into prostitution. Delve into the issue a little deeper and it gets worse: boys and girls as young as five are bought, sold, ‘rented’ or kidnapped. Not only are they forced into the sex trade, they are also placed in organised begging rings and sold into slavery in domestic or workplace settings. There exists a structured system for forcing females, adult and minor, into prostitution, and there are physical markets where victims are bought and sold. Women are trafficked for prostitution into Iran and Afghanistan, and Pakistan is a trafficking destination for persons from Iran, Afghanistan and to a lesser extent Bangladesh. There are reports of child sex trafficking between Iran and Pakistan. Domestically, the largest human trafficking problem is bonded labour. These appalling facts are the findings of the US State Department’s 2013 report on Trafficking in Persons, the US government’s principle diplomatic tool in engaging foreign governments on the issue. Sadly, Pakistan is hardly alone in this dismal picture. Secretary of State John Kerry, whilst releasing the report, referred to the global trafficking problem as “modern-day slavery”.

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When she was a child, her mother often said daughters bring good fortune, but now it seems a curse.

11-year-old Sana, who lives at a shelter home now, was sold by no one else, but her own parents to a couple for Rs 2,000 per month. Coming from the rural areas of Punjab, the child was sold into domestic servitude by the parents knowingly. Sana started working as domestic help at the couple’s house, who owned her, while her family was sent Rs 2,000 in advance at the beginning of each month.

She lived in Gulberg with her buyers, who made her work for extended periods of time with barely enough food or at times, no food. Her ‘employers’ tortured her for a couple of years physically as well as mentally.

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Macedonian police have arrested 15 alleged human traffickers, including a police officer, suspected of smuggling Arabs, Africans and south Asians into western Europe, a minister said Sunday.

They are suspected of running an international human trafficking ring, smuggling more than 250 immigrants from Greece to Serbia over the past six months, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska told reporters.

The immigrants included nationals of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria and other Arab countries, the minister said.

They paid between 120 and 200 euros ($160 to 270) to get to Serbia and another 300 euros to enter European Union countries, she said.

The immigrants either sneaked into Serbia away from border crossings, or were hidden in car boots or managed to cross aboard buses and even cabs, Jankuloska said.

Border Security Force has identified specific spots along Bangladesh and Pakistan borders used for illegal migration and human trafficking and deployed additional manpower and special surveillance equipment at these places, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Mapping of Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangladesh borders is being carried out to identify the spots vulnerable to crimes like illegal migration, human trafficking and smuggling, Minister of State Home Mullappally Ramachandran said in written reply.

He said BSF has been able to map and identify 86 border posts along Pakistan and Bangladesh boundaries, which are vulnerable to illegal migration, while there are 32 spots prone to human trafficking, 57 vulnerable to smuggling of fake currencies, 55 vulnerable to smuggling of drugs and 23 spots prone to cattle smuggling.

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Iran and Pakistan have agreed to cooperate against human trafficking and to exchange name of agents involved, IRNAreported.

It was decided in a meeting between Ala’eddin Boroujerdi, Chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iranian Islamic Parliament, Majlis, and Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Boroujerdi noted with satisfaction that cooperation between the two countries is on a positive note.

He suggested that Iran and Pakistan should also boost their trade ties and work closely to introduce barter trade system.

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Zakir, 10, pauses during his work of cutting fish at Karachi’s Fish Harbor on Feb. 1, 2012. Zakir earns $2.20 per day. Rising food and fuel prices and a struggling economy have forced many families to send their children to work instead of school.

Reuters reports: Tears tracing lines of dirt on his face, six-year-old Pakistani boy Nabeel Mukhtar cries while crouching on a pavement to scrub motorbikes, his job for nine hours a day, six days a week in Islamabad, Pakistan.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to send my son to school but we have so many expenses … We struggle to put food on our table,” said Mukhtar’s mother, Shazia, who also has a four-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter.

“He’s learning to work and he also earns around 300-400 rupees. So what’s wrong in that? We are poor,” Mohammed said of the boy.

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You have ruthless buyers sitting in the U.S. who don’t care what you do, as long as you do it on time… We take a hit every time we’re late. That means lost margins. That means we do what we need to do to make our orders, fast. This factory owner may have been working extra shifts just for that purpose…
–Ali Ahmad, Owner of Nizam Textiles in Karachi, Pakistan1

More than 300 trapped workers were killed in two separate fires on the same day—289 workers in an apparel factory in Karachi and 25 workers in a shoe factory in Lahore—a day Nasir Mansoor, leader of the National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan (NTUF)—calls the “darkest and saddest day in the history of Pakistan’s labor movement.”

The Karachi factory, Ali Enterprises, operated illegally, without proper registration. When fire broke out—reportedly for the fourth time within two years—more than 600 workers were trapped. The main sliding door was locked to protect the merchandise; windows were barred with iron grills; stairs and doorways were blocked with piles of finished merchandise; and there were no emergency exits. None of the workers had appointment letters and most of them were contract employees hired by a third party. As contract workers they were not entitled to social security or workers’ compensation. None of these workers had the security to voice their fears about the risky working conditions they found themselves in.

Bangladeshi children are trafficked to India and Pakistan to serve as sex slaves and domestic servants. Young boys are often used as camel jockeys in the Middle East. Most of these children willingly cross this border, searching for a better life. What they most often find is a hell far worse than the world they left.

Last year, the Bangladeshi Parliament passed a landmark anti-human trafficking law. Last month, through assistance provided by USAID, the government released a national action plan to implement the law across the country, including here at Benapole.

U.S. pressure and guidance helped make the law possible, but the real work has yet to begin. Laws are just words on paper. Putting those words into direct action is where it counts. I can already see some progress. Right at the border, posters warn travelers about human trafficking and explain what to do if they find themselves in forced servitude.

But posters are not enough.

“We know what human trafficking is,” says the police chief of Benapole. “What we need is a place to put the survivors. We need to be better in identifying traffickers, and we need all authorities to ask basic questions to determine if someone is a victim or not.”

HAYDEN COOPER, REPORTER: In the teeming, dusty streets of Islamabad, most Pakistanis scratch out a difficult existence. It’s a world away from life in Australia, so the dream of migration keeps Australian officials busy, processing a constant flow of visa applications.

FORMER VISA OFFICER, AUST. HIGH COMMISSION, ISLAMABAD: Every single day, five days a week from eight in the morning until five at night, it was – and often with overtime. It was hard work.

HAYDEN COOPER: This former Immigration Department employee wants to remain anonymous. She worked at the Australian High Commission in Islamabad. Her job was to process visa claims and now she’s speaking out to reveal the extent of visa fraud in the region.

How widespread is this as a problem for Immigration officials?

FORMER VISA OFFICER: Very widespread. It came into my office on a daily basis.

HAYDEN COOPER: One of the most common complaints is of Pakistanis who claim to be Afghans. The method is simple: buy identification documents at the local Afghan consulate in Pakistan, then apply for a visa in Australia.

Human trafficking from Central Asian Countries to Pakistan is going on and highly educated girls from Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are forced to prostitutions, the foreigner victims have said.

At least six girls, trafficked from Central Asian region, say they are doctors by profession and were offered jobs in their field in Pakistan. “But we were deceived on fake jobs offer with high incentives. We were deprived of traveling documents and passports once we arrived in Pakistan so that we could not contact law enforcement agencies,” they told Online.

The girls from Uzbekistan said on condition of anonymity that they were persuaded to apply to a job in health sector of Pakistan that apparently offered high incentives, 10 times greater than a doctor earn in their home country. “But after arriving here the person who was presenting himself as an recruiting agent snatched our documents,” they said.